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Water Resources

Pennsylvania’s 84,000 miles of rivers and streams, along with its lakes, wetlands and aquifers not only provide our drinking supply and recreation but also sustain our economy, our heritage and future prosperity.  But for more than a century, we treated our waterways with disdain, without regard to the impacts on human health or the ecology. Nearly 15,000 miles of stream in Pennsylvania are not drinkable, fishable or swimmable – 34 times the length of the Susquehanna River and 46 times the length of the Allegheny. PEC has focused its expertise and experience into the Center of Excellence for Water Resources, which addresses abandoned mine drainage, stormwater management and a program for trading credits for removing excess nutrients and sediment from streams.

Click here for a brochure highlighting our statewide green infrastructure work, or click on any of the individual projects listed below for more details.

Water Resources Programs

  • Ecological Restoration
    It's a "shore" thing that people love waterfronts that boast trails, parks and outdoor activities. As efforts expand to bring people back to the Delaware River, PEC sees the restoration of riverfront plant and animal communities as critical in providing destinations for people and safe habitat for wldlife.
  • Environmental Advisory Council Network
    The EAC Network helps local officials make sound environmental decisions within and across municipal boundaries. The Network promotes and supports Environmental Advisory Councils, who are appointed volunteers at work protecting the environment through project implementation, site plan and ordinance review, community education and much, much more.
  • Forested Buffer for Environmental Credits Project
    Partnership installed a forested riparian buffer to demonstrate how a corporation can fund a conservation project yielding measurable environmental credits that can be recognized by state and/or federal environmental credit registries and potentially be sold as marketable offset credits.
  • French Creek Project
    PEC co-founded the French Creek Project in 1995. French Creek later was designated by the Nature Conservancy as one of its original “Last Great Places.”
  • French Creek Stormwater Management
    PEC manages an alternative stormwater Best Management Practice (BMP) project in urban areas of the French Creek watershed (i.e., in areas of already high percentages of impervious surface cover and in areas of increasing percentages of impervious surface cover). Through this program PEC works with municipal officials and private landowners to site, design and construct the alternative stormwater BMPs.
  • Governor's Environmental Excellence Awards Gala
    For the past several years, PEC has hosted a gala dinner in celebration of the recipients of the Governor's Environmental Excellence Awards.
  • Great Lakes Conservation and Restoration
    PEC works with multiple stakeholders throughout the Lake Erie basin and across the state and Great Lakes basin to promote the conservation and restoration of Lake Erie and the rest of the Great Lakes.
  • Greater Philadelphia Green Business Program
    Since its launch in March 2009, more than 100 companies have made the commitment to green their office practices. From simple tasks to changing habits, businesses are saving energy, reducing paper waste, conserving water, and making a greener difference.
  • Green Infrastructure
    PEC is a leader in promoting the use of Green Infrastructure as a way to manage the growing stormwater runoff problem across the state.
  • GreenSpace Alliance
    GSA, an affiliated organization of PEC, is an alliance to promote and advocate for the preservation and enhancement of recreational, natural and agricultural open spaces to preserve the quality of life in southeastern Pennsylvania, the most rapidly developing region of the state.

Past Accomplishments